Konbanwa! (good evening) It has been 4 days since I came to Japan. In those 4 days, God has blessed me SO much. I came to the PazJapan building where a church is located, the home of Tim and Christine Huber is, and where missionaries are usually housed, at least till they can get their own apartment. The first morning, I was introduced to a missions group ORU from Oklahoma. And oh, man. They completely changed my life. Every day these amazing people let me tag along and join in on their different activities, ranging from Family Mart (the little convenience store around here) visits for small meals, to eating out at an Indian Curry place, to my first experience at a moving sushi bar restaurant, to visiting campuses and meeting new students, to walking around the city either handing out fliers for FUSE, or just looking around in the AMAZING shops and participating in purikura (their version of a photobooth-better lighting, makes your skin flawless and eyes big and pop out, and you get to edit the pictures with fun graphics and things, and they print out as tiny picture stickers <3 <3). This group was just...wow. Their love for the Lord, for each other, and for their mission in loving the people of Japan was inspiring and just something I envy greatly. They became close friends with me in the 3 days I knew them before they left for home again. It was just....I can't describe my experience with them. :)
On Sunday, I started the ministry. FUSE is a youth program. We go out on the streets, meet people, and invite them to join us in the meeting, which consists of worship (in both Japanese and English, each chorus or verse varies in the 2 languages), announcements for various activities during the week, and then a message, followed by Cell Group, which is like a care group where you are a few other peeps get together, study the word of God, pray for each other, and get to know everyone better. I didn't attend this week because I was so jet-lagged. It was exhausting doing all the activities I did. I ended up going home early with Abi, one of the missionary girls here who has been living in this building since winter. She took me to a little 'fast food' place where we had a nice-sized bowl of rice, thin beef strips, and the most amazing onion I've ever tasted. None can compare to what I had. All forrrrr....I think it was 380 yen or something (less than $4.50 American dollars). It was quite delicious. :) When you arrive in many of these restaurants, you are seated at a table, you share a menu among many people, and when you are ready to order, you just push a button they have ready for you. It's amazing, not having a waiter come up to you and pressure you into a choice. hahah
Monday, I went with the group to an all-girl's university where we spent all of lunchtime getting to meet girls. It was super awkward at first. Tami (one of the ORU girls) and I went to 2 Japanese girls who didnt' speak ANY English, so it was kind of intersting trying to communicate with her. Thankfully, Tami had been here a month and had many different sentences and words memorized. We used my dictionary to help. After those girls, we found 3 others who were quite good at English, and they were super interested in talking with us, and will even join us for some of the meetings and activities this week! I'm soooo super excited to see them! :) After that university visit, we went around and looking in the shops and malls for a while. We were actually in the city where Hello Kitty World is located. :) I'm going to have to visit, since she was my childhood hero back in the day. <3 We all went to the mall, went for sushi, and afterwards, we stopped by a convenience store and bought fireworks, then walked a few minutes to the riverside. It was SO fun! I've never lit fireworks or seen them lit in person. You just don't do that in America. Or at least not where I'm from. Not unless it's the 4th of July. We were next to a group of Japanese people who also had fireworks. The difference was, tho, they were young peeps who were drinking. So some of them would light a firework and aim it towards their buddy. One guy's pants literally lit of fire, he fell to the ground, and holes marked his pants afterwards. It was kind of freaky, but I was still laughing my haed off. I'm terrible. hahahah But you don't see that every day. I think I was the only girl in the group who wasn't freaking out like a mom about the fires. I lit several myself. It was great. :D This week, I've met several Japanese peeps who have been hanging with the ORU group, including Wam (a real swag guy. he's the Japanese version of Michael Jackson. He works as a DJ in Tokyo, and invited me to come over and watch, which I'd LOVE to do!!! He's great), Yuki, the sweetest guy alive. He helped me learn Japanese, and is just so nice. And Yuuki, a darling girl who has spent so much of her time with us. I love her :) I'm excited I got to spend time with them during the ORU group's stay. Even though those wild, loud, crazy people are leaving, I hope these guys will hang out. I may not be able to speak much Japanese, but they are amazing people. God let me get to know them for a reason. :)
Tuesday was the ORU's last day here. We all went to a missionaries meeting at 8:30, and that was followed by prayer. Everyone in the room counted into 1, 2, 3, or 4, and went to a separate room with our number to take prayer requests and pray. It was SO AMAZING. I'm not the type of person to show my emotions. I don't cry that easy, and rarely show it. I was nearly sobbing. Just from prayer, and the overwhelming thought and knowledge of being here for God's people, with God leading me. I have a purpose here, and I'm blessed beyond anything to be able to live it. Oh my word. It's incredible. Seriously. Anytime I think about it, I start to cry. Anywho, after that, I went upstairs for a FUSE meeting among the FUSE peeps. For those that go to Covlife, it's like the ADMIN team. We lead, design, and run all things related to this. We plan all the activities, who will do worship, who will translate, what games to do, what things to run and be held during the week, etc. After that, I hung out for a bit before having a one-on-one meeting with Mark, one of the leaders of FUSE. That was really helpful to talk to him about everything. Getting to know what life here will be like for me as a missionary working with FUSE. He took me to the bank, we came back and took the ORU team to the train station, and then I came back and hung out with a bunch of the missionaries and some Japanese friends I met this week with the ORU team. We talked together, each practicing Japanese or English, then played cards together. Card games are REALLY popular here in Japan. :) Unfortunately, I got creamed. hahah!
Today I moved into my apartment. Since the ORU team was here, the girls got the basement of the church building, and the guys shared the room I now have. I was using Tim and Christine's apartment till now. It's an adorable Japanese room. Bamboo mat flooring, carpet squares in cute block designs, the paper window covers that slide, nice deep brown closet doors, cool light fixture. I have a desk and a tiiiiiiiny brown leather chair for my furniture, and I'm using 4 futons stacked up for my bed. I spent the day moving in and cleaning up. Dusting, vacuuming, arranging things, etc. etc. took WAY longer than I expected. I'm so surprised. hahah But it's a lovely room a few doors down from Abi and Yuriko, a Japanese girl who is also living here. At 5:30 we headed to Shinyurigaoka, a 5-10 minute train ride away from here, where we met Rosie (Mark's sister-in-law) and another Japanese friend. We had dinner (I only had less than 500 yen to spend on dinner, since earlier in the day I bought several food sandwiches (kind of like hotpockets), 2 cartons of juice for the next few days, and a sandwich for later. Ok. So I went to the family mart, and my intention was to have one of the hot pockets for lunch, and save the other for a different meal on a later day. The cashier asked me a question related to the food. I nodded, since the usual thing is to nod cuz they usually give you a straw or napkins or something. She took a pair of scissors, cut BOTH of them, and stuck them in the microwave. *head smack. hahahah Darnit. Learned that the hard way. Anyways. So that's why dinner was limited. But I had a ceasar salad, and we later went in the mall to the 100 Yen shop (the dollar store here with EVERYTHING, and good quality, too). I'm so grateful for that. haha I had a list that was getting bigger of what I needed (nail clippers-forgot mine. That's important in life. air freshener for my room-the fridge on this level is controlled mainly by Koreans who have um....stinky food. :P my room kept the smell of that + the ORU boys who lived here before. I got a rose freshener, and it's already doing a wonderful job. haha I got a plastic box to keep important papers and receipts, that I'm now keeping in my desk. It's SO amazing. I love it already. Weird, right? It's just a clear plastic box with clip locks. haha You can laugh. And I got some ramen bowl meals for later. I'm really cheap over here. I can spend maybe $10-14 a day on food, and I want to spend less than that, if possible. I have yet to take a bus or train to a Military base and go shopping at the Commissary for some basic cheap things that will get me by. Working on that part. It's not cheap to take a train here. But if the amount I save through the Commissary is higher than what I'd lose to get there, then I'll give it a go.
Did you know I've lost 10 pounds in the past month? Yeah. hahah 4-5 pounds here. It's really weird. It's not bad, but it's unusual. It can't be water or food weight. Idk. The meals here are quite tiny, but it's SO good and so filling. I'll figure this all out soon enough.
This is Kawasaki on my first day. It was bright and sunny. Since then, it's been cold and rainy. Apparently it will stay cold and rainy for a month. And then get really hot and humid as summer officially begins. Hmmm....
The group before we headed to lunch. Boys being boys. x) Gotta love them. :)
Indian Curry. Endless Naan bread in your order. Oh, and that's Emily being a darling silly goose. :)
Corrine, me, and Wam. :)
Tami :)
Corrine and Tami were the only peeps in the group I could grab a pic with before they left. Everyone else was busy. :/ The little thing they are doing with their fingers is SO in with the Japanese. It's adorable. (*^.^*)
Well, I should get to bed now. I've spent nearly an hour writing this post. Please comment! You'll be the first. hahah ;)
